Child Swap

[MOMOFMNM]

It became apparent to me today, after the home town 4th Of July carnival, when my dd5 got on a twirly ride with her older sisters and immediately chickened out...and then got on the pink elephant goes round and round "look mommy I am soooo happy to ride the elephant go around for 10 min" ride that our trip to WDW will happen one of two ways:

1. We do the Dumbo do or Die tour plan and no one in the family but the 5 yo has any fun after spending thousands of dollars....

OR

2. I come up with a darn good plan, use fast pass, and DO CHILD SWAP A LOT!!!

Ok so my question is...I know how the child swap works but I am wondering if anyone has had success using this and how I go about it. Is it only for certain rides?? I think she can handle dark noisy rides but not fast, spinning, type amusement park/roller coster type rides. Height bothers her too, not kinda tall stuff but really tall like a ferris wheel or TOT type tall. Anyone have a suggestion on how to handle this type of family situation? Our other two will ride anything and dh and I will too...we have one scaredy cat in the group and when we went to the Mall of America they did not do this for us so my dh and I sat out on a lot of stuff because of it...any ideas or tips appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JenLynn]

We used the child swap at Rock 'n Roller Coaster and it was a breeze. We simply let them know we were going to child swap and one of us actually just stayed in the vicinity of the ride exit while the other rode. Then the first rider handed of a fastpass type ticket and went through the fast pass line to ride again. It was very pleasant for us.

 

[shelby_36]

We were told it wasn't available for Haunted Mansion (told AFTER standing in line)

 

[MOMOFMNM]

We were told it wasn't available for Haunted Mansion (told AFTER standing in line)

YIKES...My dh will freak and carry her on screaming...(NO I know that is not allowed, it was a joke) but I would try to talk her into it...I think HM will be fine for her... I need to do research on this obviously...how about Space,Splash Mtn? Dinosaur? You know those biggy rides???

 

[shelby_36]

We weren't willing to take a chance after HM so when we went on Space mt, Dh sat in the gift shop while I went on and then we switched that way.

 

[CarolA]

I don't have kids, but I have seen Child Swap at Splash Mt. Big Thunder Mt and Space Mt. (You can also use Child swap with Fast Pass!) I have also seen it at Rock N Roll

I "think" I saw it at Dinosaur, but I wasn't paying much attention there. I also don't recall on Tower of Terror.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

You can do "parent swap" at any ride.. some people must have gotten misinformation from a not-informed CM at the time on some rides? We have done it throughout the years and even on our recent June trip on all the rides... this last trip including on Haunted Mansion. There is no way they should be FORCING families to go through the pre-show/etc. with their entire party for that ride in order to do parent swap. Ugh! I'd be asking for a 2nd opinion (LOL) if the CM there told me they couldn't do it. My youngest would be just as scared from the pre-show as the actual ride!

Parent-swap is rather simple. You simply let the first CM you see outside the ride that you would like to do the parent swap and they give you a parent swap ticket (or let you know where you can wait- some are outside the exit... some are not) and while part of your party goes through the line and rides, you wait out with the child that isn't riding. When they are done- you go while someone else stays with the child... however, you don't have to go alone- you can go with up to 2 (or is it 3?) others from your party. I don't know if it's more than 2- since we've always just had 2 other children going on the ride both times with one parent while the other parent stays with the youngest child not riding. Anyway- so it's actually great for those people (in our case kids) because they get to ride it twice.. the 2nd time without waiting in a long standby line.

Some rides have you wait in other areas- like for a few examples Mission:Space has you wait near the exit and they even have fun things for little (and older) children to do there! That's our favorite. LOL IMO Dinosaur is the worst since they have you wait outside a door there that puts you IN the gift shop to wait.... lovely, so you wait with the youngest child amidst a store of stuff they'll "want" the entire time you wait. LOL Star Tours has you wait "inside" also and usually has you in an area that is off to the side inside where others are getting on the ride with a bench. The majority had us wait outside the ride though, with a parent swap ticket (much like a fast pass but it's only for the parent + 2 (or 3?) that are swapping because of a child that isn't riding. (I imagine they would let you do the swap even if you didn't have a CHILD but had someone else -elderly, disabled, etc?- that couldn't or didn't want to ride? I don't know)

 

[rahwest]

we were just there and we didn't even have to wait near the exit. we just had to walk up to the exit and ask for a child swap ticket. so then after we got our ticket we would leave and just went back and used it later -- you just enter the fast pass line. it was really easy!!

 

[shelby_36]

I wish I'd have known to be so persistent. When the guy said " We don't do Parent Swap at this attraction" i didn't question it.

 

[DisneyMom5]

I wish I'd have known to be so persistent. When the guy said " We don't do Parent Swap at this attraction" i didn't question it.

I have seen several other posters say they were told that if the ride didn't have a height requirement, than there was no baby swap. I wonder what the real "official" policy is.